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How to List/Get/Display/Find MAC Address in Linux Using 11 Popular Methods

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In this article, I will take you through different ways to List/Get/Display/Find MAC Address in Linux. You might be aware of Ethernet Card/Network Card/NIC Controller which works at Network level and is responsible for communicating with other network devices in a Network Topology. It is used in Layer-2 Communication. You can find the usage of MAC address in wide range of Network Devices currently in use. This is typically in-line with IEEE 802 Network technologies.

What is MAC Address

MAC is abbreviated as Media Access Control. It is a unique 48 bit(6-byte) address assigned to a Network Interface. It is almost used in all the Network Devices which has network controller in it. It will always show in this form 00:07:Y7:1C:6L:03.

How to List/Get/Display/Find MAC Address in Linux Using 11 Popular Methods 1

Find MAC Address in Linux

Also Read: 25 Useful Linux SS Command Examples to Monitor Network Connections

Method 1: How to find MAC Address in Linux Using ifconfig command

If you want to check MAC Address of all the network interfaces in Linux using our traditional ifconfig command then you need to use ifconfig -a command as shown below.

[root@localhost ~]# ifconfig -a
enp0s3: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.0.103  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.0.255
        ether 08:00:27:1d:8e:54  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 191611  bytes 240718576 (229.5 MiB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 85455  bytes 10105585 (9.6 MiB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING>  mtu 65536
        inet 127.0.0.1  netmask 255.0.0.0
        inet6 ::1  prefixlen 128  scopeid 0x10<host>
        loop  txqueuelen 1000  (Local Loopback)
        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

NOTE:

Please note that here I am using root user to run all the below commands.You can use any user with sudo access to run all these commands. For more information Please check Step by Step: How to Add User to Sudoers to provide sudo access to User.

Method 2: How to find an ethernet MAC Address in Linux Using ifconfig command

If you want to check the MAC Address of a specific network interface using ifconfig command then you need to use network interface name with ifconfig command as shown below. Here we are checking MAC Address of interface enp0s3 using ifconfig enp0s3 command.

[root@localhost ~]# ifconfig enp0s3
enp0s3: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
inet 192.168.0.103 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255
ether 08:00:27:1d:8e:54 txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
RX packets 33568 bytes 12062979 (11.5 MiB)
RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
TX packets 20124 bytes 4406857 (4.2 MiB)
TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0

NOTE:

Please note that you might find eth0 network interface in your system instead of enp0s3. Hence Please use the network interface name with all the mentioned commands as per your system interface name or else none of the command will work.

Method 3: How to find MAC Address in Linux Using ip addr sh command

If you want to check the MAC address of all the network interfaces then you need to simply use ip addr sh command and check the MAC address from ether field as shown below.

[root@localhost ~]# ip addr sh
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 ::1/128 scope host
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: enp0s3: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000
link/ether 08:00:27:1d:8e:54 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 192.168.0.103/24 brd 192.168.0.255 scope global dynamic enp0s3
valid_lft 2947sec preferred_lft 2947sec

Method 4: How to find an ethernet MAC Address in Linux using ip addr sh command

If you want to check the MAC address of some specific network interface then you need to use the interface name with ip addr sh command and check the MAC address from ether field as shown below. In this example we are checking MAC address of enp0s3 network interface.

[root@localhost ~]# ip addr sh enp0s3
2: enp0s3: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000
link/ether 08:00:27:1d:8e:54 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 192.168.0.103/24 brd 192.168.0.255 scope global dynamic enp0s3
valid_lft 2610sec preferred_lft 2610sec

Method 5: How to find MAC Address in Linux Using ip link show command

If you want to check the MAC address of all the network interfaces then you can use another useful ip link show command and check the MAC address from link/ether field as shown below.

[root@localhost ~]# ip link show
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: enp0s3: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
link/ether 08:00:27:1d:8e:54 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

Method 6: How to find an ethernet MAC Address in Linux using ip link show command

If you want to check the MAC address of some specific network interface then you need to use the interface name with ip link show command and check the MAC address from ether field as shown below. In this example we are checking MAC address of enp0s3 network interface.

[root@localhost ~]# ip link sh enp0s3
2: enp0s3: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
link/ether 08:00:27:1d:8e:54 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

Method 7: How to find MAC Address in Linux using ethtool command

You can also use another useful linux tool called ethtool to find MAC address in Linux as shown below. Here I am checking MAC address of my ethernet card enp0s3 using ethtool command hence you need to mention your Interface name before running below command.

[root@localhost ~]# ethtool -P enp0s3 | awk '{ print $NF };'
08:00:27:1d:8e:54

Method 8: How to find MAC Address in Linux using Regex with ifconfig command

You can use a simple grep regular expression with ifconfig command to find the MAC Address of an ethernet card in Linux as shown below. Like above example, Here I am using regular expression on my System enp0s3 interface so you need to change and mention your interface name instead of enp0s3 before running below command.

[root@localhost ~]# ifconfig enp0s3 | grep -o -E '([[:xdigit:]]{1,2}:){5}[[:xdigit:]]{1,2}'
08:00:27:1d:8e:54

Method 9: How to find MAC Address in Linux using SYS Files

If you want to check MAC address in Linux using SYS files you need to check network address file using below cat command. As mentioned below SYS file is a text file so its contents can always be seen through Linux cat command.

[root@localhost ~]# cat /sys/class/net/enp0s3/address
08:00:27:1d:8e:54

Method 10: How to find MAC Address in Linux using AWK Regex with ifconfig command

You can also use AWK regular expression with ifconfig command to find MAC Address in Linux as shown below. Here we are grepping ether keyword from ifconfig command and then piping to awk to get first and second column output separated by tab.

[root@localhost ~]# ifconfig enp0s3 | grep -i ether | awk '{print $1"\t"$2}'
ether 08:00:27:1d:8e:54

Method 11: How to find MAC Address in Linux using Sed Regex with ifconfig command

Like above example, you can also use Sed Regular expressions with ifconfig command to find MAC Address in Linux as shown below.

[root@localhost ~]# ifconfig -a enp0s3 | grep ether | sed '/^.*ether */!d; s///;q'
08:00:27:1d:8e:54 txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)

 

 

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